A MEMORIAL HOMEPAGE
for JOEL HASTINGS METCALF
1866-1925
A PERSONAL WELCOME
TO ALL OF YOU FROM
BLOEMFONTEIN, SOUTH AFRICA...
THANK YOU FOR YOUR
CONTINUED SUPPORT AND ENCOURAGEMENT
!
&
Some
of My Own Comet Observations
A MEMORIAL HOMEPAGE
for JOEL HASTINGS METCALF
1866-1925
A PERSONAL WELCOME
TO ALL OF YOU FROM
BLOEMFONTEIN, SOUTH AFRICA...
THANK YOU FOR YOUR
CONTINUED SUPPORT AND ENCOURAGEMENT
!
&
Some
of My Own Comet Observations
Joel Hastings
Metcalf was born in Meadville, Pennsylvania on January 4th, 1866,
the son of Lewis Herbert and Anna (Hicks) Metcalf.
At the approximate age 14 after
borrowing Richard Proctor's book Other Worlds Than Ours,
from his Sunday school library he developed an interest in astronomy.
This interest was further inspired by the conjunction of Jupiter and Mars
on May 7th, 1879 when the planets were slightly over one degree apart and
/or July 22nd, 1881, when the two planets were separated by only
seven minutes of arc.
His first telescope was a 3-inch
Fitz refractor which was found by a friend of his in an abandoned house.
He traided all of his marbles and a jackknife for it. He then carried wood
and did other odd chores to earn $6.00 to have it mounted.
Joel H. Metcalf
graduated from Meadville Theological Seminary in 1890, then continued his
education at Harvard Divinity School and obtained his degree of Ph.D. at
Allegheny Collage in 1892. He married Elizabeth S.
Lockman, of Cambridge, Massachusetts in September of 1891. They
had two children, a son
Dr. Herbert E. Metcalf (July 8,
1892) and their daughter, Rachel Metcalf Stoneham,
who later wrote a wonderful article about her life with "father" in the
January, 1939 issue of POPULAR ASTRONOMY, which was later republished
in the September, 1979 issue of YANKEE magazine.
On September 5th, 2000 I was fortunate enough
to have received an e-mail from Reverend Metcalf’s Great granddaughter,
Marisa Torbert (November 9, 1974) who was able to connect me with, her
mother, the Reverend's Granddaughter, Gail Elisabeth Metcalf (November
11, 1951) daughter of Herbert E. Metcalf.
Herbert Metcalf was a Patent Lawyer. According
to Gail E. Metcalf, Herbert, adopted her when he was 59 years of age, he
died when she was just 6 years old. Until his death at 65 years of age
he continued in his father's tradition of never ending energy and service
to his fellow man. So strong was his faith in the Unitarian Church
that when he moved to California, finding no Unitarian Church there, he
refused to change faiths by attending another church. It was Herbert's
wife, Gail's mother, that raised her and her brother as Presbyterian.
As a Unitarian
Minster active in the social issues of the time, his commitment to
the community is expressed through his powerful sermons criticizing
child labor, poor wages and social injustice and is backed by his devotion
to civic duty.
He served in
Burlington, Vermont (1893-1903) during which time he interrupted his ministry
for a year in 1902 to attend Oxford University where he is said to have
attended an average of twenty-five lectures weekly on philosophy and religion
and was also given the keys to the observatory by Professor
Turner, spending much time on astronomical problems.
After Oxford, being at risk of
a nervous breakdown, he took a year off to rest before returning to the
ministry at Taunton, Massachusetts (1904/5-1910).
While in Taunton he lived at the "Old Parsonage" at 54
Summer Street.
At this approximate time in his
life Reverend Metcalf began an interest in grinding
lenses and also began a long lasting correspondence with Prof.
W. W. Campbell, Director of the Lick Observatory. It was also at this
time that Rev. Metcalf began his work/research in cooperation with Harvard
Observatory where he also became a member of the Visiting Committee. While
living in Taunton he wrote at least three articals for POPULAR
ASTRONOMY magazine and at least one for the ASTRONOMAL
SOCIETY OF THE PACIFIC. He was also a member of the Visiting
Committee for Brown University's,
Ladd Observatory,
in Providence, Rhode Island. (Data is needed
in this area! Please contact me, at the email address below, if you can
help!!) He was next called to Winchester,
Massachusetts (1910-1920), where many of his sermons and editorials
were more than occasionally published in the Winchester
Star, and finely to Portland, Maine (1920-1925) where he died on
February 23rd, 1925 at the age of 59.
As a humanitarian
he volunteered his services in France during W.W.I through the Y.M.C.A.
(1918-1919) delivering supplies and news from home to the 3rd
Division, 7th Infantry along the front lines at Chateau
Thierry. While there he was also known to have carried wounded
solders and/or their equipment during frequent 20 and 25 mile marches.
When there were no wounded he was known to have marched ahead of the solders
encouraging them onward in song and spirit. In
August of 1918 he received praise from Joseph J. Brown, 1st Lieut. Co.
D, 7th Inf.
After returning
to the United States in 1919 he came home to Winchester, Massachusetts
for a brief time. Later in 1919 he and two other members of the Unitarian
Church volunteered to go to Transylvania to help with the reconstruction
of that country.
He visited many remote parts of
the area, traveling by automobile, making one remarkable journey between
Cluj and Bucharest, returning not without peril, with about $10,000 in
currency. He made a journey out from Transylvania to England, returning
with supplies. He was so loved by the people there that when two other
commissions were sent back to the area in 1922 and 1924 and were continually
asked when Dr. Metcalf would ever return again. This
is another area of his life where data is badly needed "PLEASE HELP"!
As an amateur
astronomer he discovered 5 comets, (one unconfirmed
in November, 1916 according to Dr. Brian G. Marsden of the Smithsonian
Observatory, Cambridge, Massachusetts) two of which being periodic,
the first being
P/Metcalf 1906VI which was lost
but recovered in 1991 by Howard Brewington, it is now redesignated 97P/Metcalf-Brewington.
The other was the recovery of Comet P/Brorsen, redesignated P/Brorsen-Metcalf,
now designated 23P/Brorsen-Metcalf. Dr. Metcalf
is also credited with the discovery of
41 numbered
asteroids . His own method for photographing asteroids was by....."
Instead of guiding a long exposure at the diurnal rate so that stars formed
dots and asteroides trailed, he moved the telescope to compensate for the
average motion of the asteroids in that particular part of the sky. "He
could therefore, photograph fainter planets because their images were almost
circular, while stars appeared as trailes... He usually took two exposures
of about half an hour each, shifting the plate slightly between them. With
the 12-inch, he could record planets as faint as magnitude 13.5".
He also discovered several variable
stars, 3 of which are RV Leonis (1919), SV Hydree (1921) and WZ Ophiuchi
(1922).
As a telescope maker he has graced the astronomical world with an 8- inch f/80 inch ("Broken-backed") comet hunter kept at South Hero, Vermont for use during his summer vacations, a 10- inch photographic triplet ...(history of the 10-inch)...(data on the 10-inch) now newly restored and in the possession of the Boyden Observatory, University of the Orange Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa, a 12- inch doublet (which he used in Taunton, Mass.) located at, Oak Ridge Observatory, Harvard, Massachusetts, and a 16-inch f/5.25 doublet, also located at Oak Ridge Observatory. He was in the process of making the 13- inch triplet used in the discovery of the planet Pluto when he died in 1925 (it was completed by C. A. Robert Lundin of Alvan Clark and Sons). NOTE; It was my privilege to design the plate and the plaque that will be placed on the Metcalf 10-inch in South Africa). (Large image of design)
He wrote one book ,World Stories of which I am not yet familiar.
A living memorial to his life were
the 900 persons that filled the First Church in Portland during
his funeral, the list included:
*plain people *the clergy
of the city*representatives of various organizations
*conspicuous among the crowd werethe American Legion
*and Justices of the Supreme Court
Those wishing to pay their respects
to the Reverend may visit:
Evergreen Cemetery Portland
,Maine……(207) 797-4597
Family Plot of Metcalf Joel.
H
Section: AA/Lot:677/Position:
#1
Position #2 = Elizabeth L. Metcalf,
Wife, (Died 85 years old, March 1, 1955 Cremated)
Position #3 = Rachel Metcalf
Stoneham ,Doughtier,Died 77 years old, July 11, 1975 Cremated)
Position #4 = Joel Metcalf Stoneham,
Grandson, Died
50 yrars old, 1979, Marker
only)
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